The K East Reactor at Hanford has been torn down to little more than its radioactive core and more than 50 openings have been sealed up.

The reactor will remain that way, in what the Department of Energy calls temporary surveillance mode, possibly for several years.

The K East Reactor is one of three of Hanford's nine plutonium-production reactors lining the Columbia River yet to be cocooned, or placed in storage for up to 75 years to let radiation decay to lower levels. [link to www.tri-cityherald.com] .